Coffee with Wings Feb#4

Yesterday in church our worship leader alluded to a grief she had suffered in recent months. She chose this hymn so lead us in worship.

When my grandson died this also was a song that inspired me and assured me God was with me. Being a Christian is not a bed of roses. Pain and grief are part of the journey.

1. Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;

   With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

   Leave to thy God to order and provide;

   In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.

   Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend

   Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

   2. Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake

   To guide the future as he has the past.

   Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

   All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

   Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know

   His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

   3. Be still, my soul: The hour is hast’ning on

   When we shall be forever with the Lord,

   When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

   Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.

   Be still, my soul: When change and tears are past,

   All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

   Text: Katharina von Schlegel, b. 1697;
   trans. by Jane Borthwick, 1813-1897

Valentines Day

For Valentine’s Day a fund raising committee at our school organises  Valentine’s roses and other small gifts. You pay up front and they deliver the roses for you. On Monday I found such a rose in the dustbin. Somebody was making a statement. What story of unrequited love was behind it? It inspired me to write a 300 word flash fiction story. Hope you like it.

Valentine’s Rose

 

Mom is crying again.  Noah blocks his ears and rocks. Rock, rock, backwards and forwards. Noise. Sobs. Talking? Who is with Mom?  He stops and stands up awkwardly then lumbers to Mom’s closed bedroom door.

“O Lord, you know how much I love him, but I am so tired” he hears Mom whisper.

Noah doesn’t understand much but he likes the words. “How much I love. How much I love,” he repeats to himself.

He thinks of his red flower. He found it in a dustbin this morning when he was walking past the school with Mom. Mom always says, “Don’t take things out of the dustbin, Noah. They are dirty.”

Mom wasn’t looking. He stumbled to the dustbin and took the flower. Dirty. It didn’t look dirty. It was red and had a long stem. Red was the only colour he knew. Red. It was wrapped. Like a red sweet. On the wrapping was a red heart. He grabbed the flower. The paper crinkled. He scrunched it with glee and listened to the noise again.

Rotten banana smell came from the dustbin and bothered his nose. The flower had no smell. He stroked it. It felt comforting, like his jacket. He had rescued it from the smell.  Dirty.

“Come on Noah, walk faster,” said Mom. He lifted his jersey and stuffed the flower underneath. Scratchy jersey, crinkly paper.

 

Noah remembers the flower. Red. How much I love. He fetches it from the other red things arranged on the table in his room.  He walks to Mom’s door and listens.

“Lord, please just give me some sign that we’re making progress, that the new programme is working.”

Noah opens the door. “What do you need, Noah?” asks Mom.

“How much I love,” says Noah, thrusting the flower at her.

 

Coffee with Wings Feb#3

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and love is in the air. so the verse for the week is about Love from 1 John 4:10.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

One liner Wednesday Badge

I thought I’d like to try to design a badge. but I might be too late. Not sure how my time zone compares. 

Coffee with Wings February #2

And Now, little children, abide in him…(1John 2:28)

I got to thinking about the word “abide”. It reminds me of an abode. a place where you stay, a place where you live. It is the place where you find:

•  safety and security
• rest and sleep
• nourishment
• light
• comfort
• relationship
• communication
• beauty according to your taste
• cleansing
• stability.
• love

It is a place you can bring friends, listen to your music, be creative, sing and dance, walk around naked, sleep till noon, be yourself.

Abiding in Jesus is like coming home and living there.

Starting a book

Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I feel called to write, but I don’t know what. I have been playing with blogging and flash fiction and two short stories and now I am going to try a novel. I was inspierd when one of my short stories won first prize in our Writers circle and the judge said she’s like to see some of the stories turned into novels. I thought, “Why not?”

I have written the first chapter which you can find on Chapter Buzz.

I have also submitted it to the Writer’s circle. If it doesn’t win a prize then it is plain not good enough. I would also really appreciate feedback, positive or negative. I don’t want to waste my time if I don’t have the talent or skills to write a novel and if the first chapter doesn’t grip you then the rest won’t.

Please let me know what you think.

#1linerWeds

This is part of One Liner Wednesday

It is written by Eugene Rens

“Christ died for us once and for all (removed the lens cap so that light flooded in) …but ..sin creates a barrier between us and God (smudges the lens so that the image is distorted even though the lens cap is removed)”

He goes on to say that confession is God cleaning our lens.

I am just learning about photography at the moment so this image makes a lot of sense to me.

Coffee with Wings February #1

Eugene Rens, who wrote the devotion I read today, compares the Christian walk to Photography. As I attended a get-to-know-your-camera course on Saturday and am starting a Photography on line course tonight, this really resonated with me. Jesus is the Light of the World and photography is all about light.

The first rule of photography is focus. Although my camera has auto focus, from the last batch of photos I took, I deleted about 75% of them because the main object was out of focus. Our calling as Christians is to keep Christ as our focus. He is our main subject. This is going to be my challenge for the week and I invite you to make it yours too.